Financial & Banking

The CFA Romania Society of chartered financial analysts disapproves of the government's decision to reduce the mandatory contribution to pillar II privately managed pension funds from a current 5.1 percent to 3.75 percent in 2018, arguing that the cut in relative value of the contributions leads to a significant reduction in the income of Romania's future retirees, according to a press statement released by the society. "Under this decision of the Romanian ...

Transylvania Insurance Broker achieved a net profit of over 2.36 million lei, in the first nine months of this year, down 22.43 pct as compared to the similar period in 2016, informs a report released on the website of the Bucharest Stock Exchange (BVB) . "The gross result at the end of the current period yielded a profit of over 2.75 million lei, down 18.18 pct as compared to the amount registered in the reference period (3.36 million lei). After deducting ...

Austrian insurance group UNIQA said on Thursday its pre-tax loss from operations in Romania narrowed to 2.6 million euro ($3.07 million) in the first nine months of 2017 from 2.8 million euro in the prior-year period, seenews.com informs.
Total gross written premiums from operations in Romania fell 13% year-on-year to 75.8 million euro in the January-September period, UNIQA said in its nine-month financial report.
UNIQA ...

The Financial Supervisory Authority (ASF) licensed on Wednesday the share capital increase of the Bucharest Stock Exchange (BVB), following the merger with SIBEX-Sibiu Stock Exchange, reads a notice released on Thursday on BVB's website. "The Bucharest Stock Exchange Company informs that on 15 November 2017 it received from the Financial Supervisory Authority (ASF) the decision no. 1624/15.11.2017 amending the provisions of article 5 of the ASF Authorisation ...

Netherlands-based Atradius, the second largest provider of credit insurance in the world, is expanding its international presence with new location in Romania, a press release informs quted by romaniajournal.ro.
Atradius will operate locally with a sales and account management team that has experience in credit insurance and is responsible for customer communications and support, as well as a risk analyst team, which will evaluate the default risk of ...

For the nine-month period ended 30 September 2017, Fondul Proprietatea registered an unaudited net profit of RON 906.4 million (up by almost 59 percent year-on-year, when the net profit was RON 570.7 million), according to the data sent to Bucharest Stock Exchange (BVB) quoted by romaniajournal.ro.
”The main contribution to the profit recorded in the first nine months of 2017 was the gross dividend income, which increased due to OMV Petrom SA ...

OTP Group announced the financial results for the third quarter of 2017 on Tuesday, romaniajournal.ro reports. According to the report published in Budapest, which presents the consolidated result adjusted in accordance with the Group reporting standards, OTP Bank Romania registered an after-tax profit of RON 30.8 M (EUR 6.8 M) in the first 9 months of the year, decreasing by 3% year over year. The bank returned to profit in the third quarter, ...

Austrian group Raiffeisen recorded a net profit of EUR 74 million in Romania between January and September this year, up EUR 10 million compared to the same period last year, romania-insider.com reads.
The higher net profit mainly came from exceptional revenues classified as “other results” worth EUR 22 million. The bank managed to remove several risk provisions, including those related to the ...

KPMG recently advised Electrica, the largest electricity distribution and supply operator in Romania, on its acquisition of a 22% stake in its subsidiaries from Fondul Proprietatea a statement sent to ACTMedia informs.
The transaction is the most attractive investment opportunity Electrica has had in the past three years and supports the implementation of the Group’s strategy.
KPMG assisted Electrica as M&A and ...

The inflows of personal transfers in Romania in 2016 from those working abroad reached EUR 2.45 billion, the highest level since 2010 and the fourth highest in the EU, Eurostat, the statistical office of the European Union informs quoted by romaniajournal.ro.
Romanians in the diaspora sent 12.5 percent more money in the country than in 2015, when the amount of transfers was EUR 2.17 billion. The amounts sent last year are equal to those in 2010, but ...

In its meeting of 7 November 2017, the Board of the National Bank of Romania decided the following:
to keep unchanged the monetary policy rate at 1.75 percent per annum;
to narrow the symmetrical corridor of interest rates on the NBR’s standing facilities around the policy rate to ±1.00 percentage points from ±1.25 percentage points. Thus, starting 8 November ...

Romania's annual consumer price inflation accelerated to 2.6% in October, from 1.8% in September, the national statistical office, INS, said on Friday, seenews.com informs.
Food prices rose 3.52% year-on-year in October, while non-food prices were up 3.26%, INS said in a statement.
Prices in the services sector decreased by 0.33% year-on-year in October.
On a monthly comparison basis, Romania's consumer ...

Italian financial group UniCredit recorded a EUR 69 million net profit in Romania in the first nine months of this year, up 7% over the same period of last year, romania-insider.com reads.
The group’s operational revenues stood at EUR 278 million, slightly lower than in the same ...

Greece's Eurobank Ergasias [EUROB:ATH] said on Friday that it expects to sign the deal on the potential sale of its subsidiaries in Romania to Cluj-based Banca Transilvania (BT) at the end of November, seenews.com informs.
Eurobank (ERB) and BT have been pursuing exclusive negotiations since mid-September as regarding the potential sale of Bancpost, ERB Retail Services IFN and ERB Leasing IFN in Romania.
"During the last few ...

After the 9 months of 2017, ING Romania reports a profit before tax of RON 459 million, mainly due to a strong development of the portfolio, healthy risk levels and an increase in number of clients, a press release informs.
Excluding the one off effect of the sale of Visa shares at nine months in 2016, the profit before tax in 9-mo 2017 is RON 117 million higher than the same period last year, which was reported at 342 million RON. ...

European Commission (EC) has revised Romania’s growth and deficit forecasts upwards in 2017 and 2018, warning that the growth is set to decelerate but remain above poten?ial, romaniajournal.ro reads. Thus, according to its Autumn Forecast released today, Romania’s GDP is forecast to grow by 5.7 percent in 2017, 4.4 percent in 2018, and 4.1 percent in 2019.
Private consumption is projected to decelerate in 2018, as inflation increasingly ...

The Bucharest Stock Exchange (BVB) has significantly expanded its representativeness this year, romaniajournal.ro reads. The newest company on the local capital market is Sphera Franchise Group whose shares started trading today, under SFG symbol. The company, which manages restaurants under the KFC, Pizza Hut and Taco Bell brands, becomes the first listed foodservice operator on BVB, a press release informs.
“The listing of Sphera Franchise ...

Banca Transilvania plans to acquire an initial indirect stake of over 39 percent of the share capital of Victoriabank, the third largest bank in the Republic of Moldova, a press release informs quoted by romaniajournal.ro.
The transaction is in the process of request of approval of the acquisition from the banking regulators of Romania and Moldova as well as other relevant authorities.
“As a result of ...

Romania would perform better if it had a national bank to promote investments in the priority fields and a legislative framework suitable for public private partnership (PPP), in order to be able to initiate large projects, says a document presented on Tuesday at an event of the European Commission Representation in Romania. The European Commission Representation launched a national campaign to promote InvestEU in Romania. According to this ...